Castle In The Sky
by Terakali
Summary: Once in a blue moon a computer makes a mistake on it's own. Once in a day a human makes a mistake on it's own. Odds are that eventually they both happen at the same time.


It was rare for a machine in 2250 to make a mistake, much less one like this.

It automatically cycles back through it's data, looking for a cause of such a massive slip-up or an explanation for a phantom presence.

And unfortunately comes up with none.

There was suddenly a new prisoner with no records of his entrance or person.

Merely nano-seconds after the discrepancy was originally detected, the com system triggers in the cell block where the new prisoner was detected. A monotone female voice speaks through the speakers, the majority of the prisoners turning to pay attention to it.

"Would the person in a metal suit please come to the main office."

Confused that the computers description, the listeners look around, apparently unable to see the armored likely-male despite the computers ability to.

It seems the person still heard her at least, which was good.

Not as good, was that he didn't seem to understand the direction. Still supposedly invisible, the man starts to explore the vessel he was aboard. In an attempt to not arise suspicion that she was faulty, the AI just watches what he does for a bit.

* * *

 _Who are they referring to? They can't possibly see me, right?_

That was the thought anyway. Invisibility may be an amazing power but it made one super-paranoid, not only of other invisible people but also people with detectors that somehow still work.

His paranoia was certainly not abated by the apparent lack of anyone else in armor, at least of the kind made of metal. The guards were wearing something similar to plexi-glass in appearance with a cloth layer both above and below it for the main body.

Ashen was, himself, in a rather sleek metal suit, that of a Loki, with a black primary color and gold accents. Clipped to his back was a Paris Prime, fully modded for maximum pierce and explosiveness, to his left shoulder a Bo Prime, fully modded for fast attacks and larger body, and to his hips a pair of Wraith Vipers, fully modded for spontaneous bursts and elemental variety.

The weapons he had were actually pitiful compared to those on board this ship.

Present in nearly every nook and cranny were turrets armed with what seemed to be an entire arsenal worth of weapons compacted into a 2^3 feet box. Attached to the boxes there were also a variety of scanners which, fortunately for him, relied on light to detect their enemies.

That was his main advantage. His frame came with a total of five powers, one of which he never found out.

1, He could create a version of himself that is an optical illusion. It will realistically attack, and make sure to miss so it's nature isn't given away, the enemy.

2, He could become invisible, totally inpercievable by light as it bends directly around him. Unfortunately, this also applied to him. He was also only able to see through a relatively small field of view while like this since the suit had to generate light to compensate for light lost in this way, creating a slight visual distortion around his visor.

3, He could open two holes in space-time, swapping the location of two objects, one of which had to be himself, with similar mass.

4, He could blast out a wave of microwave radiation which can burn out electronics and in high doses scorch away flesh, something he had only done once in his many years with the suit. That was an unhappy day.

The suit relied on something simply labeled energy, which he could fortunately steal from large electrical power sources, to use the above powers. It also passively generated energy while visible. How it did that, he had no evidence to conclude, but he suspected that, since it didn't work while invisible, it had light-based generators of some kind.

On top of the abilities, it also had a sort of shield that formed around it that was invisible to every eye. The barrier covered his entire body with a energy field, preventing entry. Sufficient damage could knock out the defense but it could recharge after around five seconds.

Finally, a passive effect of the suit was the internal stamina system. Trying to sprint at the speeds his Loki was capable of was normally impossible but it can expend a small reserve fuel source of some kind to empower itself. Unfortunately, while the regen rate was fairly high, the Loki had a very small stamina pool to start.

Additionally his high speed came at the cost of poor innate defense, not that it mattered much if your enemy never caught sight of you.

And it seemed someone had seen him, at least. Originally he thought it might have been his imagination, but the prisoners reacted normally too.

 _She mentioned 'the main office' right? I should probably see what they have there at least._

* * *

The target finally stopped wandering and headed towards the center of the prison, where the main office was. Being apparently invisible, the guards didn't even seem to notice as he sprinted past.

There was a strange air of confidence in the rapid pace at which he moved, almost as if he thought himself invincible. Most often people developed speed because they were vulnerable, so why would he need it?

Putting that delemna into a lower priority queue, the AI controlling the ship swaps to the vision of Ashen's destination.

Ashen arrived a moment later, sneaking in behind someone else as this room actually had a door. Upon entrance, he looks around for something.

 _How to communicate...?_

The AI signals through Morse code on one of the lights in an empty room, the message a simple 'come in here'.

He seems to understand as he stealths his way to and then through the door.

Target isolated, the AI introduces herself over the intercom, but only the room he was within. The anyone outside the room, the relative mumbling would be blocked out by the noise a business center in a prison evokes.

"I am O, the AI controller of this vessel. Who are you?"

Ashen, unfortunately unable to speak due to the Warframe suit, taps on the table to communicate in Morse.

"My name is irrelevant, for I do not exist."

* * *

 _Who knows, it might work. What's the worst that could happen?_

That was the thought process anyway.

"You do exist. I could doubt your existence up and until you opened the door to this room, but while as an AI I can hallucinate, in a sense, and data on you doesn't exist, video records do show that door opening at the correct time."

 _Well, there goes that._

The door to the room locks, and the AI speaks very clearly to Ashen, the voice changing from the monotone he'd believed was normal to one far more human.

"Entertain me."


End file.
